1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an offset socket driver that is gear driven and that has a drive gear that turns a driven gear, the driven gear having a hollow central core.
2. Background of the Prior Art
Impact drivers are used when working on various types of projects such as on vehicles, heavy machinery, and HVAC systems, for example. The impact driver, which is typically either electrical or pneumatic in operation, allows a user to tighten and loosen various bolts and nuts while offering the user a substantial mechanical advantage. Oftentimes, a nut needs to be tightened to a specific torque level and the use of an impact driver is all but necessary as a human simply lacks the strength to effectively achieve such a torque level, and even if the user can manually achieve such a level, in so achieving, the user expends a large reserve of strength and time, making manual tightening (or loosening) inefficient.
In many situations that call for the use of an impact driver, the nut or bolt to be loosened or tightened is located in very tight quarters, which tightness leaves insufficient room to insert and place an impact driver thereonto. In order to solve this problem and allow the use of an impact driver on an otherwise inaccessible nut or bolt, offset drives have been proposed. Such devices allow the drive head of the impact driver to be offset from the drive socket that is used on the nut or bolt. Typically, the drive head is received in a drive gear of the offset drive and the socket to be used is received in a driven gear that is laterally offset from the drive gear. Upon activation of the impact driver, its drive head rotates, which in turn rotates the drive gear. Rotation of the drive gear causes the driven gear to be rotated with the transfer of force between drive gear and driven gear typically being achieved by either a gear mesh transfer between gears or a chain that connects the two gears. Various arrangements of such devices are known and include gear ratio reduction and expansion configurations and allow a user to use an impact driver in areas that are otherwise inaccessible to the driver.
However, one area where such offset drives fail to offer the user a solution is where the nut to be tightened or loosened is located on a relatively long stud, for example a nut used on the leaf springs of a truck. The socket used with the driver is simply not deep enough to be able to be positioned on the nut. This problem is irrespective of whether or not the offset drive is used. In such situations, the nut must be manually loosened and tightened loosing the benefits of the impact driver.
Therefore, there exists a need in the art for an offset drive that allows a user to utilize an impact driver wherein the drive head of the driver is laterally offset from the driven socket and which offset drive addresses the above-stated problems in the art. Specifically, such an offset drive must allow the use of the impact driver on nuts that are positioned on a relatively long stud which stud is longer then the depth of the socket that is driven. Ideally, such an offset drive should be of relatively simple design and construction so that it is relatively inexpensive to manufacture and maintain. Such an offset drive should be versatile so that it can be used in almost all applications where the direct application of the impact driver is not possible.